Beware snooping employers: lawyer

A FAIR Work Australia case, involving a transport company using private investigators to follow staff on sick leave, has sparked a warning from injury compensation lawyers.

Brisbane-based lawyer Chris Ng said the Victorian case should make injury compensation clients wary that employers might snoop on them.

He said he was not trying to help people push bogus claims but issued a caution that genuine claims could be challenged by employers or insurers if people did things that might, visibly, be at odds with their claim.

"Social media and private investigators are part of the injury compensation landscape now," he said.

A Victorian woman lodged a complaint with Fair Work Australia against the Toll Group, claiming unfair dismissal after private investigators followed her to a supermarket while she was off on injury leave.

The complaint reportedly stemmed from the woman not advising her employers of the shopping trip when quizzed about her activities.

Ng, from Bennett and Philp Lawyer, said following employees was unusual but not unheard of.

He said the lesson to anyone on sick leave due to a workplace injury was to ensure any activities they undertook did not seem at odds with their claimed condition.